Even though I am a big Kirby fan, I just can't see Spider-Man working as well under his hand. Steve Ditko had a very unique art style and a fairly unique point of view as plotter which made Spidey unique. Looking at his output from that period on action oriented, street level heroes like Ant Man or Captain America, I think a Kirby Spider-Man would have been a more typical super hero slugger. The subtlety that Ditko brought to Peter Parker and Spider-Man would likely have been lost.
I think that a Kirby-drawn Spidey would have been successful, but not as much as the Ditko version. Just like the Lee-Kirby Fantastic Four, the Lee-Ditko Spider-Man stories were bigger than the sum of their creator's talents.
I'd be interested to read the crossovers with the Lee/Ditko Fantastic Four!
I don't think it would be the same success -- Ditko (and then Romita, especially) captured youth in a way that Kirby would have handled differently, and the high-school soap-opera aspect would have come across differently (and I'm guessing not quite as well). But because of that, the strip might have evolved to emphasize different strengths. For the most part, though, I think Spidey's better off with the parents he had.
I think it'd be a success. I agree it probably wouldn't be the same kind of success. Didn't Ditko have a hand in Spidey's design? Using that logic Kirby could have had input and we'd have a totally different looking Spider-man.
I have an idea Spider-Man was a combination of three key ideas, "spider-themed hero", "outsider hero" and "teen hero". The spider-themed element could have suggested the outsider hero element; I don't recall hearing at what stage Lee decided to make him a teen hero, so perhaps a Lee/Kirby version would not have been one.
One place Lee has talked about Spidey's creation is this interview, but I don't think he indicates there at what stage the idea of making him a teen hero was adopted. He says he told Martin Goodman he wanted him to be a teen, but they may have talked about it after the artist switch.
I have a theory, which I arrived at when we discussed Spider-Man's creation earlier this year in this thread, that the story from Amazing Fantasy #15 and the first story from The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (minus the page with the recapitulation of Spidey's origin) were originally intended for the same issue. (I made my case in a post on p.2.) If so, the issue would have ended with Spider-Man's being declared wanted. So perhaps a Lee/Kirby Spider-Man, or even the Lee/Ditko one if he'd been launched in his own title, would have been an outlaw hero.
J. Jonah Jameson was introduced in the first story in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (he doesn't appear in the Chameleon story). Peter didn't start selling pictures to Jameson until TheAmazing Spider-Man #2. In #1 Jameson's role is that of the hero's persecutor, like Thunderbolt Ross in the Hulk's series. I don't know if Jameson was Ditko's idea; the abuse-of-media-power theme with which he's associated in #1 could come from him. If there would have been such a character in a Lee/Kirby version of the feature it may be that Peter would not have worked for him and he would not have taken on the comical-curmudgeon-foil-for-the-hero role he took on. On the other hand, in TheIncredible Hulk Banner had personal links to Ross, so it may have been part of Lee's writing style to link the hero personally to his persecutor. (Note that in both cases the hero worked for his persecutor and was romantically involved with a woman connected with him. But whereas Betty and her relationship with Banner were introduced in The Incredible Hulk #1, Peter's romance with Betty didn't begin until Amazing Spider-Man #5.)
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Sure, it would. It would have been different, but just as big.
I'd be interested to read the crossovers with the Lee/Ditko Fantastic Four!
I don't think it would be the same success -- Ditko (and then Romita, especially) captured youth in a way that Kirby would have handled differently, and the high-school soap-opera aspect would have come across differently (and I'm guessing not quite as well). But because of that, the strip might have evolved to emphasize different strengths. For the most part, though, I think Spidey's better off with the parents he had.
It would have looked more like Simon and Kirby's The Fly, possibly. On the other hand, I don't think a Ditko Fanatastic Four would have looked right.
I have an idea Spider-Man was a combination of three key ideas, "spider-themed hero", "outsider hero" and "teen hero". The spider-themed element could have suggested the outsider hero element; I don't recall hearing at what stage Lee decided to make him a teen hero, so perhaps a Lee/Kirby version would not have been one.
One place Lee has talked about Spidey's creation is this interview, but I don't think he indicates there at what stage the idea of making him a teen hero was adopted. He says he told Martin Goodman he wanted him to be a teen, but they may have talked about it after the artist switch.
I have a theory, which I arrived at when we discussed Spider-Man's creation earlier this year in this thread, that the story from Amazing Fantasy #15 and the first story from The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (minus the page with the recapitulation of Spidey's origin) were originally intended for the same issue. (I made my case in a post on p.2.) If so, the issue would have ended with Spider-Man's being declared wanted. So perhaps a Lee/Kirby Spider-Man, or even the Lee/Ditko one if he'd been launched in his own title, would have been an outlaw hero.
J. Jonah Jameson was introduced in the first story in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (he doesn't appear in the Chameleon story). Peter didn't start selling pictures to Jameson until The Amazing Spider-Man #2. In #1 Jameson's role is that of the hero's persecutor, like Thunderbolt Ross in the Hulk's series. I don't know if Jameson was Ditko's idea; the abuse-of-media-power theme with which he's associated in #1 could come from him. If there would have been such a character in a Lee/Kirby version of the feature it may be that Peter would not have worked for him and he would not have taken on the comical-curmudgeon-foil-for-the-hero role he took on. On the other hand, in The Incredible Hulk Banner had personal links to Ross, so it may have been part of Lee's writing style to link the hero personally to his persecutor. (Note that in both cases the hero worked for his persecutor and was romantically involved with a woman connected with him. But whereas Betty and her relationship with Banner were introduced in The Incredible Hulk #1, Peter's romance with Betty didn't begin until Amazing Spider-Man #5.)